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Can We Manage for Resilience? The Integration of Resilience Thinking into Natural Resource Management in the United States

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Abstract

The concept of resilience is now frequently invoked by natural resource agencies in the US. This reflects growing trends within ecology, conservation biology, and other disciplines acknowledging that social–ecological systems require management approaches recognizing their complexity. In this paper, we examine the concept of resilience and the manner in which some legal and regulatory frameworks governing federal natural resource agencies have difficulty accommodating it. We then use the U.S. Forest Service’s employment of resilience as an illustration of the challenges ahead.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank J. B. Ruhl for his review of an initial draft of this article. Thanks also go to the anonymous reviewers of this paper for their comments and suggestions, which greatly improved the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of New Mexico, 1 University Avenue, MSC01 1110, Albuquerque, NM, 87131-0001, USA

    Melinda Harm Benson

  2. National Risk Management Research Laboratory, Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Ahjond S. Garmestani

Authors
  1. Melinda Harm Benson
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  2. Ahjond S. Garmestani
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Correspondence to Melinda Harm Benson.

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Benson, M.H., Garmestani, A.S. Can We Manage for Resilience? The Integration of Resilience Thinking into Natural Resource Management in the United States. Environmental Management 48, 392–399 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-011-9693-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-011-9693-5

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